Quote:
Originally Posted by Mellow_D
In other words, to say "a song is in the Key Of A Minor" ... well, which "A Minor" ... considering there are 3 kinds of minor scales?
How's that for being utterly confused now?
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If somebody just says A minor, assume you're using the natural minor.
The harmonic and melodic minors are grossly misused. Most of the time, it's not necessary to think of them as a separate scale. Remember, no matter what key you are soloing in, you have access to all 12 notes! Yes, some notes will be more dissonant, but you can still you them and make them harmonious.
So use natural minor.
Harmonic minor exists for one reason: the leading tone. Play the major scale. (Let's play it in C for the sake of simplicity). C D E F G A B ... C.
Do you hear how that B really really wants to resolve to C? (If you don't, download the functional ear trainer from miles.be - it's free - and start using it. It changed my musical life). How there's this tension there, pushing you to resolution?
You notice that, in C major, that B note is part of a G major chord - your V chord. This sets up a very strong cadence: G major to C major resolves so well in part because you're letting that leading note slide up a half step to where it wants to be. So if you play G then C, you feel very solidly in C major.
Okay, what happens in A minor? A B C D E F G A. Well, G-A is a full step. It doesn't have the same "dying to resolve" feeling that B-C had in a major context. So Em-Am doesn't have the same sense of finality - it's defines a key center less well.
But somebody had the bright idea to say, "Well, what if we pretended, just for the sake of the cadence, that a minor scale had a leading tone. We acted like that G was a G#. That would give us a stronger E MAJOR to A minor cadence, and we could manipulate the leading tone to strong effect."
Viola. The harmonic minor was born. Now, look -
if you're using that G#, and you're not using it as a leading tone, you're really not using the harmonic minor. You're just using a major 7th accidental in the minor scale, which is totally cool (remember, you always have access to all 12 notes!). You hear a lot of people (metal shredders, mostly) talk about soloing in harmonic minor with no sense of what a leading tone is and they're really not using the harmonic minor.
The main reason you even need to be aware of the harmonic minor is because that major V chord is so common, and you need to be wary of clashing the G-natural in the natural minor scale with the G# in the harmonic minor (although you actually hear this clash fairly often). As you get better at hearing chords, and understanding where your chord tones are, you won't need to think about a separate scale for this at all. (It's an issue you'll have whenever a non-diatonic chord is used).
The melodic minor is very rare in popular music. Somebody (probably not someone as bright as the guy who figured out the harmonic minor) said, "Wait a second - but if you do that, and I'm playing an ascending line, I have to play E F G# A - and that F-to-G# is kind of a big gap, three half steps, and it's really limiting my melodic options." And so the smart guy said, "You know what, just sing an F# there when you're going up. But when you're going down, since you don't need the leading tone (remember, you're not in the harmonic minor UNLESS YOU'RE USING THE G# AS A LEADING TONE), just let them both drop back down a half step and we're all golden."
(There was actually a big tradition of moveable notes in scales that predates the creation of the minor scale, so this wasn't as crazy as it sometimes sounds to people today who say "what? scale notes can move?")
So just like you're only using the harmonic minor if you're using that G# as a leading tone, you're only using the melodic minor if you're using that F# to smooth out your ascending melody which includes that G#. Otherwise, if you hit that F#, it's just an accidental. The raised sixth in minor is actually pretty common, as it's also the distinguishing feature of the ... actually, I'm not going to finish this sentence because it requires me to use a word-which-rhymes-with-Toad, and that will just confuse you even more. So instead, just trust me when I say a raised sixth in minor is pretty common and let's leave it at that for now.
Deep breath. Okay. Here's the most important thing:
Using these concepts requires that you not think of scales as shapes on the fretboard full of interchangeable notes. It requires that you actually be able to hear each scale degree as it's own note with it's own distinct relationship to the tonic note. This is important, and comes from ear training (see that thing I mentioned in a parenthetical above? If you haven't downloaded it yet, now would be a good time).
Hopefully this answers your question.